Surprise is a medium-sized city located in the state of Arizona. With a population of 30,886 people and six constituent neighborhoods, Surprise is the 21st largest community in Arizona.

There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Surprise, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Surprise, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Surprise's real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. The city does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income in Surprise is $44,156.

Unlike some cities, Surprise isn't mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Surprise are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Surprise is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Surprise who work in office and administrative support jobs (17.42%), sales jobs (12.65%), and management occupations (7.53%).

Also of interest is that Surprise has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One downside of living in Surprise is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Surprise, the average commute to work is 30.23 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Surprise Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Surprise is somewhat better educated than the 14.96% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 20.45% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Surprise in 2000 was $21,451, which is upper middle income relative to Arizona and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $85,804 for a family of four.

Surprise is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Surprise home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Surprise is White, followed by African-American. Surprise also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 23.28% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Surprise include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Polish.

The most common language spoken in Surprise is English. Some people also speak Spanish.